The Tropical Fruit Forum

When I visited Excalibur and got a suebell it was labelled as such.  So were most of the trees I saw there.  I'm sure they have some disorder but it wasn't like the whole place was without labels and they are going from memory. 

They taste identical to me.  I see zero reason to grow plain seeded Nagami unless you are using it as a breeding parent. 

I believe I have the "excalibur red hybrid" though it was simply labelled red lime.  And yes it is dark orange rather than red, even the description says "as red as a honeybell tangelo" which isn't red at all

If it is from Taiwan, it could be 文旦柚子,Wendan pomelo.  It is the most grow pomelo in Taiwan.

It wasn't labelled with country of origin, or might have said China, I forget now.  The shape looks a bit off, but the flesh and peel looks exactly right.  This seems a likely candidate, thank you.  Unfortunately, I've never seen this variety for sale in the US

I do, no HLB in Pennsylvania.  Are you in NE USA, or EU?

I am interested if these are self fruitful or need pollination.  Mine also bloomed for first time last year, but only a few blooms and no fruit set. 

You are absolutely right that soaking the containers in a tub of water solves the problem, but I have a *lot* of containers, it would take all day to do them one at a time

To be clear, I am not looking for a wetting agent to retain water, but one to cause water to flow more freely through the container to avoid hidden dry pockets. 

I know that soil mix is the best way to handle this, but I'm thinking of wetting agents as an additional safeguard. 

Yucca! but you have to add it to the water I think not the soil so I'm not sure if that would work

I found this recommended various places... when digging a bit it seems to be yucca "saponins" aka soap, right?  Much of what I am finding is basically "use soap" but ideally non-detergent potassium-fat soap.  And it looks like the liquid types are close to every watering. 

We all spend a lot of time thinking about soil mixes and drainage.  I have personally seen severe tree damage or death caused by large dry areas of hydrophobic soil inside of a container mostly caused by too much peat moss.  But whenever I buy some decorative plant or use seed starting soil I am always amazed to see mostly-peat soil draining like sand.  I now know this is because they have added wetting agents.  It makes me wonder... why not just add wetting agents to all container plants with ever repotting (they don't last forever).  If I search for 'wetting agents' I get a mix of:

 1) scientific articles not specific to agriculture talking about wetting agents in a general chemistry sense
 2) various soil wetting agents for sale
 3) instructions on how to make your own wetting agents, seeming to always be detergent soap + water

So, we all know plants don't like salty soil, so dumping soap into the soil doesn't sound like a good idea at all to me.  Of the many wetting agents for sale, I can't really understand the pros and cons of different types.  Anybody have experience with this?

Is there a low cost wetting agent that I can safely apply to my container trees?

It's very noticeable in nagami, fukushu, marumi.  You can often find nagami kumquats at grocery stores. I have them all growing in my greenhouse.

The underside of my suebell leaves is soft like velvet, though the fuzz is barely visible